UNION UNFAIR PRACTICES; DUTY OF FAIR REPRESENTATION – Grievance Handling/Contract Administration

Single Topic for Decision 1321E

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A union may exercise its discretion to determine how far to pursue a grievance in the employee's behalf as long as it does not arbitrarily ignore a meritorious grievance or process a grievance in a perfunctory fashion. A union is also not required to process an employee's grievance if the chances for success are minimal. A union's decision not to continue to pursue a grievance, regardless of the merits, is not a violation of the duty of fair representation. With regard to the union's duty of fair representation after arbitration, an arbitration decision is ordinarily final, except where the union does not represent the employee properly at the arbitration proceeding. However, in order to prove this, the employee must show more than a mere error in judgment. He must establish that the union was guilty of malfeasance, dishonestry, bad faith, or discriminatory treatment, or that it acted in a perfunctory or arbitrary fashion; was guilty of malfeasance, dishonestry, bad faith, or discriminatory treatment, or that it acted in a perfunctory or arbitrary fashion; conduct, the member must show blatant unfairness by union. None was demonstrated here.